This week Environment Secretary Michael Gove stepped up his war on the waste of £10.2million worth of food each year in the UK.

He opened a fund for more than £6 million to redistribute surplus food to tackle a situation in which 1.8 million tonnes of waste comes from food manufacture, one million from the hospitality sector, and 260,000 from retail, with the remainder from households.

But it is estimated a further 100,000 tonnes of food - equating to 250 million meals a year - is edible and readily available, but goes uneaten.

During the war, with German U-boat warfare threatening to starve Britain into submission, any food waste was considered critical.

The posters which are up for sale (Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

One poster exhorts women to “Come and help in the Victory Harvest – you are needed in the fields.”

The sale shows how the wartime public was the target of a continual barrage of posters carrying warnings and appeals.

A soldier asks railway travellers; “Is your journey really necessary?” while another shows a sneezing production line worker and says: “Coughs and sneezes spread diseases. Trap germs by using your handkerchief. Help to keep the Nation fighting fit.”

Other posters drum home the security message, with one showing military men enjoying a drink and the company of an attractive woman, with the line: “Keep mum. She’s not so dumb.”

The slogan “Tittle tattle lost the battle” is included on a poster of two sailors having a drink, with Hitler listening under the table, while another shows a soldier abroad writing a letter home as a bomb arrows towards him, with the words: “The result of uncensored thoughtlessness.”

Featonby’s Mark Lane said: “Posters like this are now historical documents.”